Hydraulics, branch of science concerned with the practical applications of fluids, primarily liquids, in motion. It is related to fluid mechanics (q.v.), which in large part provides its theoretical foundation. Hydraulics deals with such matters as the flow of liquids in pipes, rivers, and channels and their confinement by dams and tanks. Some of its principles apply also to gases, usually in cases in which variations in density are relatively small. Consequently, the scope of hydraulics extends to such mechanical devices as fans and gas turbines and to pneumatic control systems.
Liquids in motion or under pressure did useful work for man for many centuries before French scientist-philosopher Blaise Pascal and Swiss physicist Daniel Bernoulli formulated the laws on which modern hydraulic-power technology is based. Pascal’s law, formulated in about 1650, states that pressure in a liquid is transmitted equally in all directions; i.e, when water is made to fill a closed container, the application of pressure at any point will be transmitted to all sides of the container. In the hydraulic press, Pascal’s law is used to gain an increase in force; a small force applied to a small piston in a small cylinder is transmitted through a tube to a large cylinder, where it presses equally against all sides of the cylinder, including the large piston. Bernoulli’s law, formulated about a century later, states that energy in a fluid is due to elevation, motion, and pressure, and if there are no losses due to friction and no work done, the sum of the energies remains constant. Thus, velocity energy, deriving from motion, can be partly converted to pressure energy by enlarging the cross section of a pipe, which slows down the flow but increases the area against which the fluid is pressing.